Slovenian minority co production The High Sun qualifies for Cannes
The film focuses on three different decades, two neighbouring villages burdened with historical heritage, and three love stories intertwined into a classic tale of forbidden love.
The director Dalibor Matanić says the following about his film:
"It is a love film about the power that love requires in order to soar, in its purity, over the mud that we keep waddling through every single day. The whole crew enjoyed the making of this film. Besides the people I work with regularly, this time I also cooperated with the director of photography Marko Brdar, whom I have followed in his student films. His intuition is extraordinary, therefore we have worked on this film without wasting any words."
Starring Tihana Lazović and Goran Marković. Other roles: Nives Ivanković, Dado Ćosić, Stipe Radoja, Trpimir Jurkić, Mira Banjac, Slavko Sobin, Lukrecija Tudor, Tara Rosandić and Ksenija Marinković.
Besides the Slovenian producer Gustav film (Petra Vidmar, Frenk Celarc) and director of photography Marko Brdar, Slovenia also contributed the sound designer Julij Zornik, makeup designer Mojca Gorogranc Petrushevska and Talija Ivančič, colourist Emil Svetlik, actor Nejc Cijan Garlatti, technical crew and technical equipment (Viba film, Gustav film, Mb Grip), as well as final sound processing (Viba film, 100) and picture processing (Teleking) for the screening of the film in the DCP format, which has replaced the laboratory 35 mm copy of the film.
The High Sun is a Croatian-Slovenain-Serbian coproduction. While the whole film was shot in Croatia, around Knin, most of the post‑production was carried out in Slovenia.
The film was produced by Kinorama (Ankica Jurić Tilić) from Zagreb, Gustav film and SEE Film Pro from Serbia. It was supported by the Croatian Audiovisual Centre, Slovenian Film Centre, Serbian Film Centre, Viba Film Ljubljana, MEDIA and the European fund Eurimages.
After the attainment of the Croatian independence, The High Sun is the first Croatian feature that managed to qualify for the official programme of the Cannes festival. We are still waiting for a feature film signed by a Slovenian director to qualify, although Slovenian film has already been presented there.
After the Slovenian independence two Slovenian makers of short films have qualified for the greatest festival in the world: Zdravko Barišić and his Balkan Roulette qualified for the official competition programme in 1998; while in 2008 Martin Turk's Every Day is Not the Same qualified for the Quinzaine des realisateurs section.
The last Slovenian feature film director in Cannes was Karpo Godina, whose Artificial Paradise was the opening film of the official programme in 1990. The first Slovenian director to appear in Cannes was France Štiglic with his film On Our Own Land in 1949, while in 1957 his film The Valley of Peace received the Award for Best Male Role.The Cannes selectors chose Matjaž Klopčič three times: in 1968 with the film On Paper Airplanes in 1975 with Fear and in 1985 with Heritage.
The last co‑production film with Slovenian participation to appear in Cannes was the film No Man's Land by the Bosnian director Danis Tanović in 2001, which received the Award for Best Script and later also the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.
Trailer: https://vimeo.com/125192617
